Arabian adventure: the case of the missing press release

On August 24, Benzinga reported:

Nano X Imaging Shares Spike Higher; Hearing Traders Circulate Co Has Signed 4-Year Distribution Agreement With Dubai-Based DHI

Signing a material agreement by Nanox is supposed to be followed by a 6-K or at least a press release.  But those never came. Let's dig into it a bit further.

Apparently, Khaleej Times had reported about a "DHI 2048 launch event" in Dubai, supported by UAE's Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing and attended by ambassadors from the UAE and Israel, as well as officials from health ministries and various authorities.  At the event it was revealed that:

[Digital Health Innovation, or DHI, 2048,] the collaborative platform aims to install 2100 Nanox systems in public and private hospitals, train the workforce including nurses, and deploy artificial technology to create a robust healthcare ecosystem. The introduction of this technology is intended to promote the mission of providing a worldwide end-to-end medical imaging solution that enables people to have early medical detection and better health

Source: https://twitter.com/michaldivon/status/1430414620259504128/photo/2

What the press did not mention was that Nanox has effectively signed the agreement with itself.  Maybe that is why the 6-K never came out.

According to its website, DHI 2048 is an UAE "organization," formed by Nanox and Illumigin, which are both founded by the Chairman of Nanox.  The website domain was created only in July out of Israel (per ICANN lookup tool).  The website uses webflow, the same web platform used by Nanox.  The Chairman of the "organization" is Adiv Baruch.  In his position as a Chairman of Israel Export Institute, he has aggressively promoted Nanox in the past months.  For example, he told the Korean press at a signing of a Korea-Israel foreign-trade agreement in May that:

Nanox is a company with a proven innovative technology in the medical imaging market and is committed to the cooperation between Korea and Israel. It symbolizes cooperation in research and development (R&D), assembly production and sales between Korea and Israel. Such corporate activities will serve as the basis for Israel's innovation and Korea's growth.

At the DHI event he reportedly said:

Deployment of Nanox systems, trainings and state-of-the-art AI technologies is just a start, and we aim to further accelerate the growth of health care sector with the support of our regional stakeholders.

Why would he promote an obvious fraud?  Turns out, he is also a Chief Strategy Officer and a Director at the publicly-traded Cuentas (CUEN:Nasdaq), a suspect fintech out of Miami, where the new Nanox CFO, Ran Daniel, is a CFO.  Mr. Baruch also happens to be the Chairman of Powermat, the wireless-charging scam founded by the Chairman of Nanox.

Interestingly, while Nanox remained silent, Illumigyn issued a press release next day announcing that it and "Dubai-based company [not an organization anymore?] DHI 2048" will deploy 2,500 systems to improve women's health care in the Gulf Cooperation Council.  But the whole thing is just a press release - there is nothing special about Illumigyn's device, as the 510(k) summary reveals - with the major "innovation" being the use of white and green LEDs instead of white LED and a filter by the predicate, a far cry from the multispectral magic touted for years, the same multi-spectral nonsense repeated by Nanox (see, for example, F-1 filing, page 83).

Also interestingly, Zebra-Med, which is supposed to be acquired by Nanox in a toxic deal soon (toxic, because the number of shares issued is not fixed but depends on the stock price of Nanox), tried to get on the money-tree UAE band-wagon earlier by participating in the UAE-Israel Peace and Prosperity Roundtable in January.  Nanox' and Zebra's PR firm had rushed into UAE even earlier. 

This whole DHI thing is obviously a half-baked sham and makes no sense - a part of the "latest cooperation to strengthen the ties between the UAE and Israel," following the "Abraham Accords" signed in August last year and the "health cooperation" signed in April earlier this year.  It does not even fit in the Nanox narrative, where the "cheap" or "free" Arc was supposed to go to countries that cannot afford real medical imaging.  But at least pretending that DHI is a UAE company or "organization" makes sense, as apparently there could still be rules that prevent UAE entities from sending money to Israel, thereby creating obstacles for Israeli "tech" companies in grabbing UEA's "excess cash."  One has to wonder whether the next escalation in Arab-Israeli conflict will be precipitated by Nanox or something like Nanox.

As of today, the healthcare solutions webpage of the company of the Member of the Royal Family who signed the "cooperation agreement" with DHI "to streamline the adoption of best-in-class digital health products and innovative solutions from Israel" is still silent about medical imaging or Nanox or the "[over] Two billion dollars to be deployed in the next four years on healthcare equipment, training and AI based technologies.".  So is the partners webpage.  But Refinitiv's Zawya carried the UAE's press release (here in Arabic), so it must be true. 

Oh, and if someone knows what 2048 is supposed to stand for, please let me know.  Can it be 50 years after 1998, the beginning of the H.H. Sheikh's "Federal Group?"  Can't be, since the "message" in the brochure says 1988...  Jeremy points out in a comment below that 2048 is 100 years past 1948, Israel's birth year.

Update November 16, 2021:  An article in the Israeli press says Illumigin is looking for a listing (IPO?) in the United States at a value of more than $500 million.  The prospectus will be a great reading, as Illumigin has no prospects of ever becoming profitable - its product - a colposcope - is just a camera.